MEMS vendors range from large multi-national and
multi-product suppliers such as STMicroelectronics, Bosch, Texas Instruments,
and Freescale Semiconductors, down to suppliers focused on the MEMS market with
relatively small product portfolios such as VTI, InvenSense, and Memstech.
Each vendor is vying for a slice of a market that will be
worth more than $1.5 billion in 2016 for MEMS sensor and audio devices in
smartphones and tablets alone.
Certain segments of the market have emerged with
continued strong growth potential, including MEMS inertial sensors and
microphones. The smartphone and media tablet markets are the driving forces
behind this growth.
The MEMS market is going through a transition period, as
many other semiconductor market segments have when approaching maturity,” said
Peter Cooney, practice director, semiconductors, ABI Research.
Leading vendors understand that to be successful in
consumer electronics markets, you have to have economies of scale and be able
to supply a broad range of solutions,” Cooney added.
As markets mature, component integration is the key to
success, reducing BOM cost and board space while offering customers ease of
design and reduced time to market. To this end, vendors are racing to diversify
and increase product portfolios. This is driving M&A activity in the MEMS
market.
Over the next few years, the number of vendors addressing
high volume MEMS markets will shrink as larger suppliers acquire companies to
increase product offerings and use their expanding portfolios to further
integrate and achieve market dominance.
By Telecomlead.com Team
editor@telecomlead.com
